Turkey Gold Mine Mining

With prices of the precious metal at historical peaks, Turkey has become a destination of choice for gold mining companies, encouraged by the political stability and the favorable business climate brought in by the new Mining Law. It is estimated that 65% of the Turkish territory is suitable for exploration, in a country that is extremely hungry for gold. In 2007, the value of the 239 tons of imported gold bar amounted to $5.8 billion.

Turkey counts two large gold mines in operation, Ovacık and Kışladağ, although the latter was closed by the courts last summer. Ovacık has been in Turkish hands since Koza Gold acquired Normandy’s shares from Newmont in 2005. Annual production is around 5.5 tons of gold. “We have grown since 2005 to become a cash generating company with two mining operations, Ovacık and Havran, and one processing mill. Our aim is to keep growing and become the biggest gold producer in Turkey. Moreover, if we see opportunities abroad, in Asia or Africa, we will take them,” said Ismet Sivrioğlu, Koza Gold general manager.

The other large-scale gold mine, Kışladağ, is run by Canadian Eldorado Gold through its Turkish subsidiary Tüprag. When its environmental impact assessment (EIA) was challenged in the courts, a decision by the judges forced the company to shut the mine, which was closed in August 2007. At the time of writing, the mine has not been re-opened as the final decision on the case is still pending. The company expects the case to be resolved during the first half of the year and predicts that it will be able to put 190,000 oz of gold from Kışladağ onto the market in 2008.

The court decision on the Kışladağ case was a shock for the whole mining sector, especially considering the current government’s willingness to support and promote mining activities in Turkey. TüpragEldorado received full backing from Ankara (through land nationalization and granting of licenses) to go ahead with another mine, the Efemçukuru project in Western Turkey,expected to produce 112,000 ounces per year once it starts operating. The problem is that for this to happen, strong opposition from a section of the local community (which includes the mayor of Izmir) will need to be overcome.

“We have always worked hard to get the support of the local people so we can integrate them into the project. In case there were problems we had to be the first to tell them. The fact that the government of Turkey has given you a license doesn’t mean you don’t need to speak to the locals. It is not a regulatory requirement, it is just good business practice,” said Mehmet Yılmaz, director of Tüprag. Yılmaz explains that Tüprag has spent $2 million in corporate social responsibility initiatives such as planting thousands of trees and providing local villages with water supplies. However, as he points out, “It takes a long time to demonstrate that mining brings quality to the lives of the local people.” Local politics and a sometimes sensationalist media coverage do not make things any easier.

Those against gold mining are perhaps not very numerous, but they certainly know how to get their message across, giving the impression that the anti-mining feelings are high in Turkey, when the situation in the sites and surrounding villages is actually rather different. Some industry leaders complain that foreign companies are too easy a target for local NGOs and that generally Turkish companies do not need to invest as much money and time as they do in communication and social responsibility initiatives. More difficult to prove (and for many, even to believe) are the conspiracy theories according to which the businesses that benefit from the buoyant gold trade into Turkey are financing environmental NGO groups to prevent the local gold mining sector from developing. To improve the image of the companies involved in gold exploration and development, the Turkish Gold Miners Association (AMD) was founded in 2006 including the main players, most of them foreign.

Chairman of the Association, Ümit Akdur, from Tüprag, believes the organization has been successful in communicating the problems of the sector to the related authorities and the local communities.

However, he explains that it is very difficult to offset the effects of bad media coverage and gives the example of the sector’s use of cyanide, one of the controversial issues pointed at by the environmental groups: “Turkey imports 300,000 tons of cyanide compounds. Only 3,000 of those are used in the mining industry, in two gold mines and a silver mine. However, everyone’s attention is on these 3,000 tons, which makes 1% of the total, and no-one speaks about the rest.”

Gold Processing Specs

The preparation of gold processing are crushing and also screening, mainly to the particular mining of granular ore out from the clay mineral allergens and sludge dissociation. Screening will be screening out coarse free gold, and milling, for almost all purposes. Gold inside the chemical industry, even offers a unique goal, such as nuclear materials found in chemical plants, man-made soluble fiber spinning class manufacturing facility with alloy leading.

Gold Processing & Extraction Plants

Consulmet supplies a selection of modular plants for your recovery of rare metal. Our gold running plants are fabricated utilising the most effective international suppliers; and also leveraging our low-cost executive, manufacturing and logistics offer chain. Though our primary focus could be the design and method of getting turnkey plants, we can also provide a selection of extractive metallurgical services offering metallurgical test-work as well as the reviewing of present test-work data.

We’ve extensive experience inside the following areas regarding gold recovery and also extraction:

Ore obtaining

Crushing (jaw and also gyratory)

Screening

Communition (roll crushers, basketball mills, HPGR)

Gravity separation (centrifugal and also jigs)

Water restoration and thickening

Cyanide leaching

Carbon dioxide handling and regeneration

Elution and also electro-winning

Gold area technologies and work-flow

Cyanide cleansing

Containerised Gold Processing plant

Consulmet’s 5 to be able to 15tph gold extraction plants are created to fit inside common shipping containers, enabling ease of travel and rapid assemblage. Each gold place comprises a milling element, separation module, rare metal recovery module, h2o recovery circuit and also integrated roof construction.

Consulmet’s containerised rare metal processing plants are already designed to offer core skills advancement in milling, divorce and gravity restoration. Other design features are as follows: